


Sentinel and Sleeper

by dawnstonedagger



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, Crossroads, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Far Future, Gen, Imprisonment, Post-Canon, Spirits, Tumblr Ask Box Fic, Weirdness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-08-09 11:59:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7801066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dawnstonedagger/pseuds/dawnstonedagger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Several hundred years later, neither of them are quite what they were.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sentinel and Sleeper

“Solas,” the chained woman whispered, her voice like wind across sand.

His dark, furry muzzle lifted and brushed up against her side as he stirred to waking.

Lana roused ever more seldom, in the past decades. Perhaps she’d picked up on some tremor in the Waking world.

Solas dearly hoped that was not the case. To penetrate their prison, such an event would have to be catastrophic. They’d both paid a great price for peace, and he could not afford to interfere again.

No one else could keep her calm.

No one else could guide her to the quiet places in the Fade, where she could simply be. Where few could go, and fewer knew how to listen.

No one else could hold her back from destroying everything she’d worked so hard to save.

The chains were only there to make everyone else feel safe.

He was a guardian once, and he was so again. For all eternity, if need be.

She didn’t move, and her eerie forward gaze didn’t seem to focus upon him. Rather, on one of the mirrors, which locked both entrance and exit to this ornamental stone womb, now and forever their shared domicile.

Solas reached out with his spirit, again, and reminded her of her; of musical laughter, and that wicked grin she’d had; her rangy, weathered form, missing a limb due to his foolishness; how her determination and leadership had changed the world for the better; all that he knew of her and more, lest she forget herself completely.

He caressed her mind, stoked a familiar spark, which whimpered silently beneath a maelstrom of power, exultant, and yet in endless pain.

Part of her survived, but he could never be certain how much.

Enough that when she wept, he could feel satisfied he had offered comfort.

_Enough to make it worth it._

Sometimes when he woke, he lay next to a dragon, or another wolf, or a winding column of light; sometimes she slipped her chains, until the agony, the weight of knowing, became too much. She resembled herself for the moment, though unnaturally translucent.

“Vhenan,” the word slipped from his mouth, though he didn’t mean to speak it.

“I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere. Don’t be afraid,” she said, in that voice which was no longer entirely hers.

They were so far beyond the realm of fear, such a sentiment was ridiculous. She could sense it within him, though, a mortal feeling, a useless waste of mental energy, but it was there.

“You should rest, my heart,” he said.

“She says it won’t last. They will forget. You will forget.”

“We will not forget,” he said, and moved to curl around her more.

“She knows, knew. She knew you—from before. You should have died.”

“Yes,” he said, piecing together what she must have seen in her dream, from his own memories.

“Ghilan’nain lied.”

“Yes.”

“She was so beautiful. Sunlight on water, angry waves, violent over rock and stone. She ate her children.”

“Mythal is telling you stories,” he said, chiding. She spoke of several stories in too few words, but he knew what she meant by them.

“Not all of them are.”

“Enough of them.”

“They’re good stories,” she said, her eyes seeming to focus on him for a moment. “You kept them to yourself. You thought I wouldn’t, but I understand now. I’m so sorry.”

Crystal tears appeared, streaking her face, though she lacked the proper body to make them. Her moods shifted like the wind, they would fade soon enough.

“Shh.”

He pressed his spirit closer, and tried to draw her under with him, draw her mind into the Fade.

“You want to go back already?” she said, though she didn’t resist, laughing quietly.

“Yes. Go back to sleep, my heart.”


End file.
